Abilene paradox

[ciphergoth]

Just randomly found this on Wikipedia: Abilene paradox - the possibility that a group decision will be made for X even though every single person in the group would prefer Y. This is a familiar situation to me, and I'm sure that's usual. It can be hard to express a preference weakly - you say "I'd slightly prefer not to get starters", and no matter how many caveats I put on that, it's rare that anyone is prepared to say "well, I really like their spring rolls so I would like to get starters if everyone else is OK".

On the other hand, it's kind of a good problem to have - I'd rather these problems than have everyone fighting to put their own needs ahead of everyone else's...

Comments

[thekumquat.livejournal.com]

So faffing is an indicator of niceness? As a X-herder, I can believe I'm just out for my own self-interest a lot of the time, so it's nice to hear support for my view that it helps others too.

I'm not sure about the example though, given that usually there's no reason for one person not to have a starter even if no-one else does. I think it's more of an issue when only one person clearly expresses a view (eg I'm not going to that pub!) and all the others have only a weak dissenting view (let's go to the X, it's always OK).